The present disclosure relates in general to security and, more specifically, but not by way of limitation, to push channel authentication for mobile computing devices.
With the continued proliferation of applications and services using the Internet, malicious activity focused on exploiting such applications and services also continues. One example of such activity involves the use of computer programs such as robots or bots. Bots can displace typical human interaction with applications and services by performing automated tasks over the Internet, particularly tasks involving repetition, at a higher rate than humanly possible.
Bots can be injected into various aspects of e-commerce and beyond, with various negative ramifications. One example is in the marketplace for tickets sales in the entertainment industry. A bot may be employed by a broker to purchase a large number of tickets for an event as soon as the tickets are made available for sale to the general public. In that way, the bot may be supplant the general public, allowing the broker in turn to offer the tickets for sale at increased prices, which only redounds to the benefit of the broker and places the general public at a disadvantage. Other examples of where bots can exploit e-commerce may include online auctions and marketplaces where high-demand products are released, such as new, popular electronics, toys, etc.
To combat bots, various anti-bot techniques have revolved around the use of CAPTCHA (Completely Automated Public Turing Test to tell Computers and Humans Apart). CAPTCHA is widely used as a means for testing whether requests received by websites are from humans. A typical example of CAPTCHA is a webpage that displays irregular/distorted characters that are not easily recognized by a bot, but which may be recognized by a human. Consequent to recognition of the characters, the human user can enter the characters into a text field and submit the entered characters for a determination of whether the entered characters match the displayed irregular/distorted characters. A match may typically indicate that the user is human.
While CAPTCHAs may be effective as bot deterrents, CAPTCHAs can have drawbacks. As bots become more sophisticated, characters used with CAPTCHAs tend to become more irregular/distorted in order to handle the bots. As the CAPTCHAs become more difficult for bots to read, they likewise become more difficult for humans to read. Moreover, even the more readily recognizable CAPTCHAs can be difficult to read on mobile computing devices that may have smaller displays relative to other computer devices such that the CAPTCHA is harder to see. Such difficulties can cause annoyance to the user, especially if the user must make multiple attempts to pass the test. Even the added step of the CAPTCHA itself, with the effort and time required to pass the test, can be a negative experience for the user, who may not want to devote the time and attention to the test.